Surgical techniques and associated devices for securing soft tissue to bone which allow free sliding of suture ends attached to soft tissue or graft (to ensure the positioning of the soft tissue or graft at an appropriate distance from the device) are known in the art. For example, a fixation device and associated surgical technique that allow precise advancement and guiding of a plug or screw into a blind hole or socket are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,329,272, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.
As detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,329,272, and as shown in FIG. 1 of the present application, cannulated plug or screw 20 is pre-loaded onto a driver 10 provided with an eyelet implant 50 at its distal end. Suture 77 attached to the soft tissue or graft 70 is passed through an aperture 55 of the eyelet implant located at the distal end of the driver 10. The distal end of the driver together with the eyelet implant is inserted into the bottom of the hole 90, with the screw or plug 20 disposed just outside the hole. Tension is applied to the suture to position the soft tissue or graft 70 at the desired location relative to the bone hole. The screw or plug 20 is then fully advanced into the pilot hole by tapping the interference screw or plug until the cannulated plug or screw securely engages and locks in the eyelet implant 50, so that the cannulated plug or screw 20 with the engaged eyelet implant 50 is flush with the bone.
The above-identified technique (the Arthrex PushLock™ technique) requires the user to load the suture (attached to the graft) through an aperture of the eyelet implant located at the distal end of the driver. This aperture is typically a very small orifice or very small hole and, thus, threading of the suture through such small aperture is difficult to manage during surgery.
A novel eyelet design (with a larger suture eyelet) that allows the user to feed working sutures through the eyelet, with less difficulty, is needed.